It was a cold night. Very occasional wind gusts alternating with total calm. The weather pattern, or pressure system is changing. I don’t know enough about the rate this happens to know if this change in the wind and temperature over 3 days is a normal pattern or not.

Damn, it’s cold this morning. Mid to high 30s and still windy. We wake about 6:30. I want to be on the trail about 7:30. It’s cold enough that I don’t want to be outside in the wind while packing, so for the first time in my hiking life I bring everything in the tent to pack. I’ve read other hikers talk about that in rainy or freezing weather.

As I get ready to actually put things in the backpack the sun is over the horizon and I feel the warmth.

When I saw this photo of people crossing the mountains here in the late 1800’s I marvel at how easy we have it. People and animal teams clearing a channel in snow that’s deeper that a person. Then moving carts and wagons over a “road” that’s full of rocks and boulders. Why would anyone do that instead of waiting until the snow was melted? They certainly had a good reason. My mind can’t create one that would have that kind of necessity.

As I start to gather our things together to pack I get a horrible cramp in my right calf. I can’t put any weight on it. I put on my shoes and go out side to stretch my calves, knees, thighs and hips. Better. I take care of a blister on my right big toe. I almost never blister while hiking… hmmm…

I hadn’t thought about the forest being full of pine tar. Duh. It’s a pine forest…

It was a very windy night. The weather predicted that the high gusty winds would end by about 10pm. They didn’t. The whole night is living wind patterns. Slow, distant whispers of leaves, crescendoing to a dull roar swirling around in 3D Surround Sound, then roaring over us, blowing the tent, sometimes pushing the peak 6 inches aside as the wind waves roar by. The sounds move away and into silence. Then a new variation on the theme repeats. Over and over…